Aboriginal use Before
British colonisation of South Australia, the
Kaurna people occupied the land from the
Adelaide plains and southwards down the western side of the
Fleurieu Peninsula. There was a camp at Aldinga known as Camp Coortandillah, and Kaurna people were present living in the
Aldinga Scrub until the 1870s, when Bishop
Augustus Short sent the remaining people to the mission at
Poonindie, thus ending their occupation of the area. After they were removed, some Aboriginal people from the
Goolwa area (
Ngarrindjeri people) occupied the area. The
Kaurna language name of Aldinga was Ngaltingga.
European history After
British colonisation of South Australia, Aldinga started as a town in the 1850s in response to the development of farming on the Aldinga Plains. The layout of the town in circa 1857 is attributed to Lewis Fidge, a local farmer. The town is reported as growing quickly with the construction of a "hotel, church,
blacksmith's shop and a number of other shops and trades". In the 1870s, the combination of declining productivity of the land and opportunities such as the availability of land in South Australia's mid-North resulted in a
population decline. However, the town survived due to its location on the Old Coach Road which continues south to towns along the east coast of
Gulf St Vincent as part of what is now called the
Main South Road. Aldinga Post Office opened around 1851 and closed in 1992. ==Popular culture==